Omsk: Siberia's Southern Outpost

s the Trans-Siberian rail line moves southeast, away from Tyumen, the landscape becomes flatter and the rich fields of western Siberia unfold

seemingly without end in the direction of Omsk. At the station of Nazyvaevsk, the border with the now-independent Kazakstan is less than 100 kilometers away. The proximity of Kazak territory, half of whose inhabitants are ethnically non-Russian, is a factor of much significance in understanding the origins of Omsk, now one of Siberia’s largest cities (current population around 1,160,000) and the capital of Omsk Province.

Russian power was first established in Siberia at the end of the 16th century. It was clear from the beginning, however, that this new southern flank was extremely vulnerable to attacks and raids by Central Asian steppe tribes. Yet Russia was beset by more pressing concerns at this time, namely the social chaos and foreign invasions of the “Time of Troubles” and its aftermath. For most of the 17th century, Russia’s rulers had to give primary attention to the consolidation and expansion of the country’s European boundaries. Indeed, this European orientation remained an overwhelming priority for Russia’s first 18th century tsar, the energetic Peter I.

But Peter also acted decisively to bolster Russian authority in Siberia, as is evident from the construction projects he supported in places such as Tyumen and, especially, Tobolsk (see Russian Life, May/June 2000). Particularly after the victory over the Swedes at Poltava in 1709, Peter accelerated the flow of resources (and, in some cases, Swedish prisoners-of-war) toward Siberia. Omsk proved to be one of the beneficiaries of that strategic policy.

In 1714 Peter the Great issued a series of decrees in support of scientific expeditions in the Russian part of Asia. Among these projects was an expedition, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Bukhgolts (1671-1741), that began in Tobolsk—at that time the administrative center of Siberia— and proceeded south toward the upper reaches of the Irtysh River. (Siberian rivers flow generally northward, toward the Arctic Ocean, and going upriver would, therefore, mean heading south.) Their stated purpose was to search for gold in sandy deposits along the river. But this detachment of some 3,000 armed men was also obviously intended to make a show of force in the area.

The saga of the Bukhgolts expedition, which in certain ways resembles accounts of American exploration in the Far West during the early 19th century, took an unexpected turn in the fall of 1715. Moving past the confluence of the Irtysh with the Om River in early September, the group pressed southward and set up winter camp near a salt lake known as Yamyshevskoe. Before the stockade could be completed, the unprepared detachment was attacked by a force of Dzhungars (also called the Oirot, a western Mongolian people ethnically similar to the Buryats or Kalmyks). Although the attack was repulsed, all of the expedition’s horses were driven off and the Russians were in effect besieged. With his men racked with disease and deprivation, Bukhgolts abandoned camp in late April 1716, as soon as the Irtysh became navigable. Stopping at the Om river site a week later, Bukhgolts sent a scout to Tobolsk, asking the powerful governor of Siberia, Matvei Gagarin, for permission to build a fort at the confluence of the Irtysh and Om rivers.

Gagarin granted permission to establish the fort, and thus Omsk came into being as the result of a military defeat and ignominious withdrawal. As a historical sequel to these dramatic events, it should be noted that Peter was incensed by the debacle, and Bukhgolts was summoned to distant St. Petersburg to answer before a board of inquiry. In January 1719 Bukhgolts gave an account of the expedition, successfully defended his reputation, and regained the favor of Peter the Great, under whom he had served in some of the young tsar’s first regiments in the 1690s. Subsequent achievements in Bukhgolts’ long and illustrious career included command of forces in the vast territory beyond Lake Baikal, as well as the negotiation of border and commercial agreements with China.

However, the Bukhgolts expedition up the Irtysh had been a defeat, and a culprit needed to be found and punished. In exonerating Bukhgolts, the board of inquiry decided that the reason for the defeat lay in insufficient preparations, and the guilty party was—Matvey Gagarin. Reports had already reached Petersburg concerning the Siberian governor’s lavish style of living in Tobolsk, and there were accusations of malfeasance and corruption. A commission to establish these charges was established in St. Petersburg as early as 1717, and it is possible that the Bukhgolts investigation was actually conceived as a means of implicating Gagarin. In any event, Gagarin was also summoned to the capital, interrogated, and fiercely tortured. Steadfastly maintaining his innocence, Gagarin was visited by Peter himself, who offered to let him keep his rank and title if only he would admit his guilt. Gagarin’s refusal (which has led some historians to accept his innocence) only enraged Peter, who had him publicly hanged in July 1721.

Thus the events leading to the foundation of Omsk provide a dramatic insight into the many perils involved in the exploration and governance of Siberia. Fortunately, Omsk subsequently led a relatively peaceful existence as the anchor of Russian power along the middle reaches of the Irtysh River. Indeed, the log and earthen fort fell into such neglect that its existence was threatened by the middle of the 18th century. However, with the expansion of roads, trade, and settlement in west-central Siberia, Catherine the Great appointed General Ivan Shpringer to coordinate Russian defensive and strategic policy in the area, and in 1764 he concluded that Omsk should become the major command center. In 1765 Shpringer chose a different site for the fortress and essentially reestablished Omsk as a viable settlement. General Shpringer also initiated construction of the town’s first brick church, dedicated to the Resurrection (1769-1773; no longer standing). With new authority, Omsk fulfilled its primary purpose: to protect Russia’s southern border and establish authority over the aboriginal steppe tribes. Only with the end of the 18th century was Russian power firmly consolidated in the great steppes to the south of Omsk.

Although administratively subordinate to Tobolsk throughout the 18th century, Omsk gained greater power in the 19th century. From 1808 until 1917, Omsk served as the headquarters of all Siberian Cossack troops, and in 1822 a separate Omsk Province was formed. Shortly thereafter, construction began on the Cossack Church of St. Nicholas (1833-1840, see page 43), based on a plan by the noted Russian architect Vasily Stasov. The St. Nicholas Church, which has now been splendidly restored, became the repository of one of the area’s great relics, the banner of Yermak, cossack conqueror of Siberia.

This strong military presence also connected Omsk with the exile system. No doubt the most famous of the fortress’s exiles was the writer Fyodor Dostoevsky, condemned in 1849 for associating with the “radicals” of the Petrashevsky Circle in St. Petersburg. Tsar Nicholas I took a personal interest in the case of Dostoevsky, who had originally been sentenced to death (a reprieve granted only when the condemned were standing on the gallows).

In January 1850 Dostoevsky arrived under guard at the Omsk fort, and, for the most part of three years, he lived the harrowing existence of an ordinary convict sentenced to hard labor, which included unloading barges on the Irtysh River and heavy construction labor in the fortress. When his health broke after a brutal flogging, Dostoevsky was fortunate to be hospitalized under the care of a sympathetic medic. It was during his stay in the infirmary that Dostoevsky began writing one of his seminal works, Notes from the House of the Dead. He also compiled a diary of his impressions and experiences, material that would later make its way into some of his greatest works. Strictly speaking, this activity was forbidden, but the hospital administration protected Dostoevsky—for which we should all be profoundly grateful. Having weathered this crisis, Dostoevsky was released in January 1854 and sent to the town Semipalatinsk (in present-day Kazakstan), where he served the remaining years of exile as a soldier in a Siberian battalion. Not until 1859 was Dostoevsky allowed to return to St. Petersburg.

During the latter part of the 19th century, Omsk expanded rapidly and acquired new importance apart from its status as a frontier fort. Regular steamboat service on the Irtysh River between Tobolsk and Omsk began in 1862, when the town’s population was 20,000. In 1894-95, Omsk was linked to Chelyabinsk in the west and to what would become Novosibirsk in the east by the Trans-Siberian Railroad. By the beginning of the 20th century, Omsk had almost 60,000 inhabitants. In 1913 another rail line was completed, from Tyumen to Omsk.

This development as a transportation center led to a boom in the city’s commercial architecture. What had formerly been a provincial garrison town consisting primarily of wooden structures, punctuated with several large churches, now became a preeminent site for banks, educational institutions, industry, and retail trade in Siberia. In addition to important branch offices for major banks and firms from Moscow and St. Petersburg, Omsk also witnessed investment from American, German and British firms, to name but a few countries. Among the leading foreign investors were Singer and Nobel. The central part of Omsk actually had a cosmopolitan air, and before the 1917 revolution the design of its buildings could rival those of Moscow’s business district. During the First World War, the population of Omsk swelled to over 100,000.

Because of the city’s strategic location, the Russian Civil War unfolded with particular violence in Omsk—although that sad distinction could be claimed by a number of other Siberian cities. Soviet power was proclaimed almost immediately, in November 1917; but with little local support, the Bolsheviks were driven from the city in June 1918. However, opposition to the Bolsheviks was fatally divided. In the fall of 1918, Omsk became a center of the so-called Ufa Directorate, whose policies were close to the party of Agrarian Social Revolutionaries. Such a liberal orientation was abhorrent to the White Army command and their conservative political supporters.

Consequently, in November 1918, the Directorate was overthrown by an army coup and replaced with a dictatorship headed by Admiral Alexander Kolchak (1874-1920), one of imperial Russia’s most distinguished polar explorers and naval commanders. Kolchak’s biography, from his polar exploits to his love life, reads like a best-selling novel, but that is a separate topic. He was an officer of great integrity and sincerely wanted to return power to other forces after the restoration of order in Russia. Yet fate ruled otherwise.

In 1919, the White forces were attacked relentlessly by a newly-energized Red Army, and Kolchak was poorly served by a command that was rife with corruption. Indeed, sarcastic rumor had it that the best source of munitions for the Bolsheviks came from corrupt officers, who diverted a considerable part of the supplies provided by the Western allies to Kolchak. At the same time, officers under his command participated in executions and other atrocities that alienated much of the population under white control, particularly in Omsk. Although he survived an assassination attempt at his Omsk headquarters in August 1919, Kolchak was compelled to surrender Omsk to the advancing Red onslaught in November 1919 and flee eastward to Irkutsk. There he was detained by a series of local forces and eventually handed over to the advancing Bolsheviks, who executed him without trial in February 1920.

With its economy shattered by the Civil War, Omsk struggled through the 1920s, achieving some industrial growth in the 1930s. Like many Siberian cities, Omsk expanded rapidly during the Second World War, both as an evacuation haven and as a center for transportation and production. Industrial expansion continued after the war, and, by the end of the 1970s, the city’s population exceeded 1,000,000—a benchmark of major significance in the Soviet period.

Despite the social dislocation and contradictions of post-Soviet Russia, contemporary Omsk is a thriving economic and industrial center. On the one hand, there is the pain of economic transition: in September 1999, pensioners peacefully demonstrated outside the provincial administration for payment of overdue pensions (something the Putin government has since effected). On the other hand, the city’s cultural life is vibrant and the mood among the people is positive and pragmatic. Omsk has a strong university (opened in 1974), one of the largest regional libraries in Siberia, and a new subway system, begun in 1996. The city’s expansion has occurred along the Irtysh river, thus creating a long, extended plan with large distances between the various districts. Under these circumstances, a subway is particularly needed, but work proceeds slowly.

Fortunately, the historic center of Omsk is rebounding. The early 20th-century commercial district, with its imposing offices and stores, is being refurbished. There is a lively club scene for young people, in addition to a number of large theaters of imposing design. Omsk also impresses with the diversity and tolerance of its religious life. In addition to several reopened Russian Orthodox Churches, Omsk contains a functioning synagogue, mosques, and a large Baptist church, to list only a few. Despite inadequate funds, Omsk also has an active architectural preservation office, headed by Oleg Sviridovsky, an energetic young director who has overseen the preservation of much of the city’s surviving architectural heritage, such as wooden houses from the turn of the 20th century.

Many development problems remain. The central district still lacks a first-class hotel, and the main Omsk airport is terrifyingly close to the downtown. This is not just a problem of sound pollution, but also a safety concern because of the possibility—however remote—of an air catastrophe. But, if industrial and economic development continue, with proper investment and management, Omsk is poised to become a center of prosperity in Siberia.

To the north of Omsk, along the Irtysh River, grain fields extend for dozens of kilometers on all sides. This is rich agricultural land, dotted by villages and small towns; but despite the fertile lands, prosperity has yet to penetrate most of these regions. Nonetheless, a few towns such as Bolsherechye, with its Zoological Garden(!), give a sense of cohesive, resilient social and cultural life.

Among the most interesting of these towns from a historical perspective is Tara, founded in 1594 as one of the earliest settlements to defend the route east. Indeed, during the seventeenth century (before the founding of Omsk), Tara was the main Russian outpost on the middle reaches of the Irtysh River. A recreation of its log stockade has been created next to the city administration building, overlooking the Irtysh River.

Tara has managed to preserve a number of its attractive wooden houses, but only one of its churches, out of more than a dozen, survived the Soviet era. To look at pre-revolutionary photographs of such towns is to understand how much of their heritage has been lost in the Soviet period—and not just in an architectural sense. Fortunately, the surviving Church of the Savior now has an active parish, with a fully-accredited grade school, supervised by Father Roman. There are currently 11 enthusiastic students in the carefully maintained two-room school, a tangible sign of the region’s hardy perseverance.

The Omsk region may have a turbulent past, and it may not have particularly spectacular scenery, but in its own quiet way, it is slowly building a better life for those who live there.